New ‘lithium-air’ batteries could be 10x more powerful, 5x cheaper

… Researchers at University of Cambridge in the UK have created a laboratory demonstration of lithium-oxygen, or “lithium-air,” batteries that have around 10 times the energy density of the lithium-ion batteries used in today’s EVs — roughly equivalent to the energy density of gasoline, according to a study in the latest edition of the journal Science.

More than simply holding more energy, the batteries are also more than 90% efficient and can be recharged more than 2,000 times, the study says. To put that into perspective, most current lithium-ion batteries are 80% to 90% efficient.

But here’s where things really get exciting: Lithium-air batteries could be five times less costly and five times lighter than today’s lithium-ion cells.

If these batteries were truly 10 times more powerful and five times lighter than batteries currently used in EVs,

“range could be extended upward of 400 miles per charge — or further than the distance from LA to San Francisc”o

range could be extended upward of 400 miles per charge — or further than the distance from LA to San Francisco (or London to Edinburgh, as the researchers proposed) without stopping to recharge. This technology, of course, has more applications than mobility; it could affect mobile devices, too. Imagine if your smartphone battery could be 10 times thinner, or 10 times longer-lasting, if it remained the same size. …